Ahern urged to meet 2010 UN aid target

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was today urged to ensure Ireland meets the UN target for overseas development aid by 2010 and not hold out until 2015.

Fine Gael Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Bernard Allen called on the Taoiseach to make a clear statement when he addresses the United Nations World Summit in New York next week.

“This important gathering of world leaders will be examining the progress made so far towards meeting the UN Millennium Summit targets, set five years ago this month,” he said.

“Of course, it was at that September 2000 meeting that the Taoiseach announced that Ireland would meet the UN target for aid by 2007.

“That summit was also important in that Ireland was actively campaigning for a seat on the UN Security Council at the time. Now that our period on the UN Security Council has passed, the aid promise has been dropped.”

Mr Allen said other EU countries have already agreed to meet the UN target by 2015 but insisted it would be absolutely unacceptable if the Irish Government delayed meeting the aid target until this date.

“If Fianna Fail and the PDs simply accept the 2015 deadline, delaying their aid promise by 8 years, then the Government will have totally abandoned the lead adopted on this issue in 2000, and will simply be trading on the agreements and promises of other countries,” the Cork North Central TD said.

“The Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee has called for the target to be met by 2010, which gives the Government an additional three years to meet the UN aid target, and would be 10 years after the promise was made initially.

“We must meet the UN target for aid as quickly as possible and the Taoiseach must make a clear and unambiguous statement that Ireland will achieve this by 2010.”